[cl-pdf-devel] Generating embeddable Postscript?

[Marc Battyani]

Hi Björn,

Björn Lindberg wrote:


>My ultimate goal is to be able to programmatically generate Postscript
>histograms, and embed them into Latex documents. For this, cl-pdf
>seems at least to be a good start. At the very least I should be able
>to generate PDF files containing the histograms, convert them to
>(E)PS, and include them into the Latex documents.

AFAIK, you can directly include PDF files in LaTeX so you don't need to
generated them in Postscript.
BTW LaTeX is deprecated you should use cl-typesetting ;-)

>What I am wondering is wether it is possible to

>(a) Avoid having to put the histograms on a "page", so that I don't
>    have to prune it later.

You can't have a standalone histogram. The graphic stream is not enough, you
at least need the fonts.
But you can make a small page that has exactly the size needed to put the
histogram.

>(b) Would it even be possible to make cl-pdf output PS directly?

There is no need for this. Postscript devices can render PDF files directly
and there are utilities like pdftops which can convert a PDF file to PS and
EPS.

>(c) Is there a much better approach to all this which I am missing?

Yes, keep the PDF as LaTeX can include it.
Or even better you could switch to cl-typesetting :)

If you really want Postscript, you should look at:
http://www.cliki.net/PLisp

Marc